Convergence and Union

Convergence and Union, Catalan Convergència i Unió (CiU), historical political party that supported greater autonomy for Catalonia within Spain. The party advocated for greater European integration and held moderate positions on economic policy.

The Convergence and Union (CiU) was established in 1978 as an alliance between the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and the Democratic Union of Catalunya (UDC). In 1977, as the Democratic Pact (PD), the two parties contested Spain’s first democratic elections after the death of longtime dictator General Francisco Franco. The party also included the small Catalan Democratic Left Party (EDC). An ideologically centrist and nationalist political party, the CiU attracted widespread Catalan support. From 1980 to the early 21st century, the CiU formed Catalonia’s autonomous government (the Generalitat), many times with an outright majority, and had success in elections to the Cortes (Spanish legislature).

For most of the 1980s and ’90s, the CiU and Jordí Pujol i Soley, the president of Catalonia from 1980 to 2003, supported the national government led by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), which in return agreed to generous tax transfers to the Catalonian government. However, in 1994, demanding that greater autonomy and more powers be devolved to Catalonia, the CiU withdrew support from the PSOE in the Cortes. In 1996 the CiU joined the Basque Nationalist Party in supporting the minority administration formed by the conservative Popular Party.

The CiU won the most seats in the regional elections in 2003, but it failed to form a coalition government. The party moved into opposition until 2010, when the CiU captured 62 of 135 seats in the Catalonian parliament. CiU leader Artur Mas was elected regional president, and he called for an early election in 2012 in an attempt to solidify his party’s majority and to bolster its case for a referendum on Catalonian independence. The strategy backfired, and the CiU returned only 50 deputies to parliament. Mas formed a minority government with the pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and pledged to call a referendum on Catalonian independence in 2014. Energized by the Scottish independence referendum held in September 2014, Mas called for a nonbinding referendum on Catalonian independence to be held in November 2014, but the Spanish Constitutional Court blocked the vote over questions of its legality. Mas proceeded with the referendum, framing it as an informal citizens’ poll, and more than 80 percent of voters favoured independence. In June 2015, in advance of snap regional elections that were intended as a plebiscite on independence, the CiU amicably disbanded, with Mas and the CDC continuing to lead the push for Catalonian autonomy.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray, Associate Editor.